How to help

For more information about Materials Matter, including details about donating money and/or materials, visit www.materialsmatter.org, or call 951-256-4110.

CORONA - The sinks were destined for the toilet.

A high-end hotel had decided to renovate, and relegated dozens of white pedestal sinks that cost $300 to the trash bin - although they still were in great condition.

Enter Materials Matter, a non-profit organization launched by a Ladera Ranch couple who are devoted to eliminating one of society's most pervasive byproducts: Waste.

The non-profit reclaimed the sinks to resell for $100 a pop.

Alison Riback and Jason McKinstry, partners in marriage and business, aren't holier-than-thou rich folks trying to assuage their guilt by giving lip service to helping others.

Neither are they joyless coupon-clippers devoted to an ascetic existence.

They're actually quite normal folks who've come up with a smart way to help the needy - as well as consumers and manufacturers at large.

Through their three-year-old organization, Materials Matter, they collect and deliver discarded building supplies to other non-profits at no charge.

The non-profit also sells other salvageable or unwanted materials to the public at up to 70 percent off what the items would cost at retail.

The mission of Materials Matter is to provide resources to revitalize communities, to build and repair affordable and transitional housing, and to equip low-income families with the building materials to repair and care for their homes affordably.

Taking a cue from retail giants Wal-Mart and Target, Materials Matter achieves the biggest discounts possible by pooling resources, centralizing distribution and collecting items on a large scale - with the aim of benefiting all of Orange County's estimated 130,000 non-profits.

"If we can make a difference in one person's life, then we've done what we set out to do,'' Riback says.

Rich or poor, or somewhere in between, everyone stands to benefit from Materials Matter, Riback says.

"You don't have to have a lot to be able to give," she says, "and you don't have to be able to need a lot to be able to receive."

Both McKinstry, 41, and Riback, 37, know what it's like to scrape by, as well as to be making good money.

Both were hard-working college kids who had to pay their tuition, and both are former expense-account junkies roaming the corporate universe, wired to their careers and little else.

Now, both are the proud parents of a 17-month-old girl, Alexis, and both are making a modest living in the challenging, often seat-of-the-pants arena of running a non-profit.

McKinstry and Riback, married since February 2005, met in June 2003, when both were working for Habitat for Humanity. They took related paths before landing jobs at that well-known non-profit, which builds houses for families in need.

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